Liturgical Studies (31)

Observers from Western churches never fail to be awestruck at a celebration of the liturgy in an Orthodox church. Naturally, many questions follow: How has the Orthodox liturgy been shaped? How different is it from the Eucharistic rites of the Western churches? Hugh Wybrew`s authoritative, but splendidly readable, book traces step-by-step the story of the development of the Orthodox liturgy from the Last Supper to the present day and vividly conveys a sense of the experience of the worshipers.

On the basis of worship of the Orthodox Church, The Year of Grace of the Lord takes the reader through the Sundays and feast days from the beginning of the year in September to the time of its completion after Pentecost. It is a guide to the scriptural readings and prayers of the calendar year and reveals the spiritual growth in Christ that is opened to us in them. In the author's words, the liturgical year is “an abridgement of the history of salvation.”

The Eucharist is the crowning achievement of the well-known liturgical scholar, Alexander Schmemann. It reflects his entire life experience and thoughts on the Divine Liturgy, the Church`s central act of self-realization.

Historians have generally accepted the "official" interpretation of the reform of the liturgical books conducted in Muscovite Russia in the mid-seventeenth century as a "correction" made on the basis of the ancient Greek andSlavic sources. In fact, the reform was based exclusively on contemporary sources, chiefly the 1602 Venice Euchologion (Greek) and seventeenth century South-Slavic editions from Kiev and Striatin. Far from being a "return to the sources," or a "correction," the reform consisted simply in the uncritical transposition of contemporary Greek practice onto Russian soil.

Intended as a sequel to the widely acclaimed and highly popular The Living God, these two volumes of The Incarnate God present a new catechetical model, derived from the Church`s liturgical year. Utilizing scriptural readings, hymns, and icons of the feasts of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, the team of authors, comprised of Orthodox theologians and pastors, draws us deeply into the mysteries of the faith as experienced in the cycle of feasts and fasts which are lived out by the faithful each year.

In this critical analysis Enrico Mazza concentrates on structure as he traces the evolution of the Eucharistic Prayer (anaphora) from its origins in the ancient Jewish rites and its Christian beginnings in the Didache. He then examines the paleoanaphoras of the early centuries and moves through the origin and progressive development of the larger anaphoric families (Alexandrian, Roman, Antiochene), showing the influence of the Jewish rites on the formation of the Christian texts before arriving finally at the classical anaphoras of the fourth century.

The purpose of celebrating the Feasts of our Lord throughout the year is to connect our life to Christ, writes the author. This is done each and every year so that we may experience the mystery of Christ personally and grow into Him. Using scripture and passages from the Fathers of the Church on the Feasts of our Lord, Metropolitan Hierotheos, a prolific writer accomplishes this in a remarkably inspiring way.